In the midst of academia’s continued overwhelming meme madness, I have been putting together a growing list of memes focused specifically on collegemediatopia– its student staffers, faculty advisers, digital tools (and distractions), and style rules. Below is a glimpse at what will hopefully soon be a gargantuan list featured on College Media Memes.

Beginning Thursday, the epicenter of the college media universe is Seattle, site of the 28th annual ACP National College Journalism Convention. I’ll be there along with a bevy of other j-profs, advisers, professionals, and j-students extraordinaire. — If you’re an attendee, please stop by most or all of my sessions, including back-to-back Friday afternoon chats […]

Roughly a week after accidentally printing a racist slang for individuals of Asian descent, The Iowa State Daily is apologizing and dropping the regular print feature in which it was included. On the “games page” of each ISD issue, editors regularly run “Just Sayin,'” comprised of “reader submitted quotes, quips and anything that may have been overheard on or off campus.”

A Princeton University senior’s column in yesterday’s Daily Princetonian calling “the whole premise of annual giving . . . problematic” has spurred a wowzer of a debate in the online comments section. A majority of the commenters, proclaiming themselves Princeton students and alums, are nastily ripping into the student columnist as ungrateful for the education and Ivy League experience she has received. At least one comment has even brought her family into the mix, prompting the student’s mother to comment back in defense of her and her daughter.

As I posted previously, The College Heights Herald, Western Kentucky University’s student newspaper, has alleged in recent coverage that WKU administrators have been aggressively monitoring and disciplining students for social media messages “deemed inappropriate.” According to the Herald, WKU has specifically been tracking some student tweets, even attempting to “shut down several Twitter parody accounts and is sending students to Judicial Affairs for tweets they consider negative against WKU.”

As I’ve posted previously, the story of the month: college memes. Campus-specific memes have been suddenly invading the Facebook streams of students at schools throughout the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe. A rash of student media reports and social media chatter confirm that undergraduates’ online experiences are now hovering between “meme madness” and full-blown“meme mania.”

Roughly two-thirds of the 600 copies of The Courier distributed last week at Monmouth College were allegedly stolen and temporarily trashed possibly in response to a Courier story about a separate alleged theft. The Courier recently ran a piece confirming charges had been dropped against five Monmouth students arrested and implicated in a scheme that involved the theft of a nativity scene and its subsequent placement outside the home of Monmouth’s president.

The headline for the online photo slideshow in The Iowa State Daily mirrors the name of the event being featured: “Protect Your Balls,” a charity dodgeball tournament aimed at raising money and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer screenings and treatment.

A rash of recent news coverage and editorial comment in The College Heights Herald, Western Kentucky University’s student newspaper, alleges a somewhat creepy campaign of administrative social media oversight and intimidation. WKU has apparently been monitoring student tweets and Facebook status updates, even attempting to “shut down several Twitter parody accounts and is sending students to Judicial Affairs for tweets they consider negative against WKU.”

Earlier this week, an investigative report involving a profitable student housing development and a popular former athletic director at the University of Oregon ran simultaneously in The Oregon Daily Emerald and The Oregonian. — The synchronous publication was the last component of an in-depth “joint reporting project” that from start to finish involved a collaboration […]

Only GOD can judge me! I eat yogurt. Where words fail, music speaks. Sidewalks are just suggestions. You never realize how shallow your life was until you become a mother. Please let us express ourselves. — In the photo, the bathroom stall is littered with these random statements, and many more. Altogether, they equal a […]

As I wrote in my previous post, University of New Hampshire senior Griffin Kiritsy is currently a major part of the college memes phenomenon– without his control or consent. He is featured in a photo being used as the so-called “College Freshman” meme.

In the photo, the two college students from Indiana are leaning toward each other, eyes locked amorously, lips puckered in anticipation– and hands blocking their mouths. The odd last detail is a playful symbol of the couple’s vow to save their first kiss until after marriage. The image ran alongside a recent report in Ball Bearings Magazine at Ball State University focused on the small segment of students who have pledged to refrain from kissing until their wedding day, even as hook-ups and half-night stands take place in bars and dorm rooms all around them.

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